Cat Rabbit X Odd Pears

It’s been a while since we dropped a collaboration sock, but boy-oh-boy, it was worth the wait yeah? We’re so excited to introduce our first collaborator of 2016 — Cat Rabbit.

Cat Rabbit is a textile artist, author and all-round boss lady stitching and toiling away in her Melbourne-based studio. She creates anthropomorphised plush characters and animals, embroidered jewelry, incredible children books and hosts workshops for kids and adults. Cat uses modest materials like felt and embroidery to create her extraordinary soft sculpture worlds, so we thought it was only fitting to ask her to collaborate with us to turn a humble sock into something truly fun and beautiful. We’re so glad she accepted the challenge because she totally blew us away with her Pear adorably named ‘Neko’ (that’s Japanese for ‘cat’!). As well as designing her socks, Cat also styled and photographed them for us — so yeah, she’s pretty much the bomb.

Read on as Cat shares what she’s all about, how she got into crafting and her top Tokyo tips!

Give us the low-down - who are you / what do you do / how do you spend your days?

My name is Cat, I am a textile artist making things under the name Cat Rabbit. I make plush sculptures, embroidered pieces and felt jewelry for exhibition, commission and my online store. I also make books for children and host workshops with Isobel Knowles under the name Soft Stories.

Tools are all well and good, but I really like the idea of making something really good out of not much. Good tunes and podcasts are helpful, particularly if it's Jarvis Cocker's Sunday Service, or Stephen Fry reading Harry Potter. It is very pleasant and morale boosting to have my cat Porco sitting somewhere nearby.

Was there anything in particular that inspired you to start working with textiles and soft sculpture?

I have always enjoyed making things, I was much more of an indoor kid - learning to knit and sew from my mum and grandma, and orchestrating little puppet plays to present to my family with my sister. It was always a background hobby I had, so while I was going through dreams of being a world famous tap dancer at age 10 to studying a literature degree in my university days, my hobby was always there in the background. When I started spending more time crafting than on anything else, that's when I realised I wanted a future with textiles!

There are loads of Japanese and kawaii culture references in your work, and you’re just about to hop over for another brief stint in Tokyo. Can you share your Top 3 Tokyo Tips? :-)

Karaoke! I didn't know until I tried, but there's nothing like belting out Wuthering Heights and Band on the Run while the shandygaffs flow freely!

Konbinis! I like looking in all the different convenience stores for limited edition snacks and lifestyle products of interest.

Taiko no Tatsujin! It's my favourite arcade game, and although I am not great at it, I like to punctuate each day in Tokyo with a few rounds of drumming ^_^

If you could send anyone in the history of the world your Pears to happily wear forever and ever, who would it be and why?

My tap dancing hero, Fred Astaire. I like the idea of his twinkle toes being snug in some cat socks when he retires for the evening.